A Pseudopotential Approach to Thermal Instability of III–V Semiconductor Superlattices

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Abstract
The thermal instability of III–V semiconductor superlattices, dominated by interlayer diffusion without impurities, were investigated using a pseudopotential perturbation approach. The emthalpies and Gibbs energies of the activation process for the disordering were calculated by assuming simple hypothetical atomic migration models. The calculated activation enthalpies were found to be related to the bulk moduli and atomic volumes of the superlattices based on the elastic diffusion model. Theoretically estimated Gibbs energies of the activation processes were compared with experimental results. The III–V monolayer superlattice systems with larger elastic stiffness and atomic volume were concluded to be more thermally stable than those with smaller elastic stiffness and atomic volume.